Comrade Koba is a story about a 10-year old boy Leon who lives in the famous House on the Embankment in Moscow - a large apartment building known for the fact that many of its famous residents were arrested during Stalin's purges in the 1930s and 40s. Leon's father was a physicist who died when one of his experiments went awry, and soon after Leon's mother gets arrested as part of the infamous "doctor's plot" -- a drummed up case against some medical professionals working in the Kremlin who were wrongly accused of plotting to kill Stalin.
Leon and several other children keep living in the secret passages of the building after their parents are taken away by the NKVD. One day, Leon has to take an underground passage into the city in order to sell one of his mother's paintings and on the way back he takes a different turn and ends up in Stalin's apartment. If you suspend your disbelief that (a) one could just wander in there, and (b) that the security officers guarding the place actually let him in, the rest of the story is pretty interesting.
During his multiple conversations with Leon, Stalin reveals facts about his childhood, his years as an underground revolutionary, facts about his relationships with his wife, children, Lenin, Trotsky, Kirov and other historic figures. I would say if you don't know much about Stalin, this is a great overview of his life and an insight into how troubled and paranoid his was for most of his life. It was especially interesting to view these encounters from the point of view of a little boy who did not know who he was speaking with. In his innocence, he says things that no one else would ever dare say to Stalin, and thus acts as a conscience of sorts for the reminiscing dictator.
5 out of 5 stars. Thank you, NetGalley, for providing an e-ARC for my review.
No comments:
Post a Comment